WARNING: unlike my usual absurdities, this story is DARK. A reader once described my writing as "twisted, but with a warm side." This one is straight up twisted. There are no heroes here. It also involves cheating as well as a bunch of other stuff that tends to trigger people. So be warned in advance.
I wanted to try something a little different and well... This is definitely different. If it isn't your thing, no hard feelings.
This is Part One of a three-part story. Everyone depicted here is over 18.
I knew I was in trouble as soon as my wife came home.
Kate had been out with her younger sister for their bi-weekly brunch date. Every other Saturday, the siblings met for a few hours to catch up on life and consume a few too many mimosas. It usually worked out quite nicely for me. I'd learned that having a well-lubricated wife often led to other kinds of lubrication later.
This time, though, it was clear when Kate walked into the house that I wasn't going to be getting laid. Her soft, pretty face was twisted into a scowl. She made a loud sigh, brushed her long, brown hair over her shoulder, then brushed past me.
"Something happen with Tara?" I asked.
Instead of answering, my wife marched straight to the kitchen. She reached up to the cabinets, pulled out a bottle of cheap vodka, and poured herself a glass, straight. Then she sat down at the table and took a large gulp. Apparently, brunch hadn't been boozy enough.
"You would not believe what Tara told me today, Andy," Kate said, loudly. She was wearing her standard uniform of jeans and a nice sweater; this one was canary yellow. Her diamond earrings, a gift from me for our tenth anniversary, twinkled in her ears.
I fought the urge to flee and sat down across from my wife, carefully clasping her hands.
"Is everything OK?" I asked.
Although her current behavior might indicate otherwise, Kate was usually a very even-tempered, easygoing woman. She's a kindergarten teacher, and she fit the stereotype to a tee. For her to be this upset, I knew something awful must have happened.
"Men are disgusting," Kate told me, "Gender equality, whatever. No woman would ever suggest
that
. Fucking Jesse."
"Suggest what?" I asked, "Was Jesse at brunch?"
Jesse was Tara's husband, which also made him my brother-in-law. He was a cocky bastard, and we got the sense that he didn't treat Tara well. But, as Kate reminded me many times, he was married to her sister, so we had to be nice when he was around.
"No, Jesse wasn't there," Kate said, "Thank God. But Tara told me what he said to her."
For a moment, I thought that maybe Jesse had asked Tara for a divorce, and I felt relieved. But guilt quickly overcame my joy. Wishing for someone else's misery -- even if they might find happiness later -- felt unforgivably cruel.
Kate took a big swallow of vodka, then continued. "Jesse told Tara he wants to see other women," she said.
"He broke up with her," I said. My intuition was confirmed.
"Oh no, he wants her to see other men, too," Kate said, "Like the both of them, together."
I nearly fell out of my chair. Instead, I got up and found myself a glass. I was going to need my own liquid courage after that revelation.
"You mean like, he wants her to," I couldn't say the words, "And he also wants to. So, they'd be like... Open?"
"Swapping," Kate said, spitting the word out like it was poison. "He wants them to 'share' with another couple. That's how he put it. Or at least, that's how Tara told me he did."
"Oh my God, he doesn't mean us, does he? Is that why Tara told you about it?"
"Ew, no!" Kate said, jumping back from the table like I'd electrocuted her. "Andy! What is wrong with you?!"
"Well, at least that's something," I said.
It wasn't the most ridiculous suggestion in the world. I'd caught Jesse eyeing Kate quite a few times. In truth, I couldn't blame him. My wife was very pretty with huge brown eyes and thick, kissable lips. Her sweet, heart-shaped face was almost always tuned to a smile. Kate had an innate, innocent beauty that told you she'd love you and keep you safe forever.
But she also had a body that would break your heart. Kate was tall, nearly matching my own height of six feet. Yet her breasts still managed to look overlarge on her frame. She worked hard to stay in shape, too, with a flat stomach, long shapely legs, and a pert bubble butt. She kept her thick, brown hair long, letting it hang straight down to the middle of her back.
Naturally, you might wonder how I had scored such a stone-cold fox. I wish I could say that I was some killer stud who hooked this gorgeous babe with my dashing looks and toned body. In truth, I'm just a normal looking guy with slowly thinning mouse-brown hair and skinny arms.
When Kate and I met, in our early twenties, she was breaking out of her awkward phase. She had been cute, clearly, but she didn't truly blossom till after we got married. I lucked out, basically. Won the lottery.
So, I was used to guys checking out my wife, glancing at me, and thinking they might have a shot with her. My brother-in-law was definitely the type to do so, and I was happy to hear that he hadn't. Not that he had much of a chance with Kate, anyway. She might force us to put up with him in person, but I knew that, in private, she despised him.
"Jesse told my sister wants to swap," Kate continued, settling back into her chair, "But not with who. He says there are websites where you can find people. Or secret clubs in the city. It's perverse." Kate gave a little shudder.
"Did Tara agree?" I asked, "To, um, share?"
"My sister told him no, straight out," Kate said, a little bit of pride playing on her face, "Apparently they're still arguing about it, though. He gave her the whole 'you'd do it if you loved me' thing which is so wrong I can't even. I told her she could come stay with us if she needs to."
"Of course," I said, on autopilot.
"I can't believe that jerk said that to my little sister," Kate said, "I mean, could you imagine?"
I shook my head and took another drink. The vodka burned its way down to my belly. Could I imagine asking my wife for that? No, no I could not.
Kate might have had an apex sexy body, but she didn't use it that way. We had what I would describe as a perfectly vanilla experience in the bedroom. She had a very traditional, romantic conception of love and she assumed that the rest of the world saw things the same way.
Did I wish, sometimes, that Kate might open up a little more? Yes, I did. But my fantasies definitely didn't extend to what Jesse was trying to convince Tara to do.
"Seriously, Andy," Kate said. "Would you want to be with another woman? Share me with another man?"
I knew better than to even pretend to consider the question.
"Kate, what do you want me to say here?" I said, "I love
you
. I want to be with
you
. I don't want to be with other people, and I
definitely
don't want you to be with someone else."
Kate nodded, accepting my answer. But she kept eyeing me, warily, like I might surprise her at any second. As if she could see something, deep in my own consciousness -- dangerous despite the fact that it had yet to take shape.
In case it isn't clear, I did not get laid that night.
*
For the next few days, despite the fact that we didn't talk about what had happened, our conversation kept rambling through my mind. I soon found out that Kate had been ruminating on it, as well.
It happened on a Wednesday night. We'd gone out for dinner with my work friend, Brian, and his wife, Vanessa. It was one of those meet-cute couple dates where we tried to see if maybe we could be more than people who shared a job.
We met at a new restaurant, a former diner that with a retro 50's style and cheeky offerings like 'deconstructed mac and cheese' and 'impossible meatloaf.' The place was loud and bustling -- far too hip and trying way too hard for the simple suburbia that surrounded it.
Brian and Vanessa were a nice enough couple. They were younger than us by a few years and clearly from a more popular crowd. Brian was athletic, shorter than me but well-built, with close-cropped dark hair. His wife, Vanessa, was a very pretty blonde with one of those shining smiles that must have taken years of practice to get just right.
Both of them were dressed nicely, wearing clothing that I would have reserved for a far more formal evening. I felt a little beneath them, if I'm being honest. But Brian was a super nice guy and we never lacked for conversation at the office, so why not play up a little, you know?
Dinner went normally at first. We did the usual tentative talking that comes with two couples feeling each other out. No, neither of us had kids. Yes, we all liked the area. And hadn't the weather been crazy lately?
Then, right after we ordered our food, Kate, sprinted past the warning signs, vaulted over the safety gates, and leapt right into the conversational deep end.
"You won't believe what my sister said to me the other day," she said, eyes wide like she could barely contain them. Immediately, I knew where she was going with this, and I glanced around the restaurant nervously. This wasn't exactly polite dinner conversation, but Kate seemed weirdly excited to share it.
Right there, to people she'd met only an hour before, Kate reviewed all the sordid details of what her younger sister had told her. How Jesse had sat Tara down very seriously and said, without a hint of embarrassment or propriety, that he wanted them to be intimate with another couple. Kate really went into it, providing loads of detail that she hadn't even given me. What Jesse had said, how Tara had responded, a real blow-by-blow. Then Kate sat back in our booth and waited for Brian and Vanessa to concur with her condemnation.
Instead, Vanessa only nodded. A little smile played across her lovely, heart-shaped face. "I've done that," she said, as casually as though she were talking about going windsurfing or eating escargot.
